High Turnout Reported in Va. Senate Race

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-elect/2006/nov/07/110703771.html

Republican Sen. George Allen, bedeviled by his own mistakes and an unpopular president, battled for his political life Tuesday against Jim Webb, whose disgust with the GOP made him a Democrat.

Final independent polls in a Virginia race that could determine whether Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate showed the two candidates were about even.

Reports from around Virginia early Tuesday indicated an extraordinarily high turnout for a midterm election, with perhaps 65 percent of registered voters expected to cast ballots, a state elections officials said. That would double the midterm turnout in 2002.

In Roanoke County, registrar Judy Stokes said turnout in the Republican-leaning county was very heavy Tuesday morning. Two precincts hadn't reported their figures.

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[FSogol]

1. I'll second that. I voted at 8:00 am in No. Va. Usually, I'm voter 12 or 18

Today I was voter 242.

[swag]

7. Was Webb's last name cut off on your ballot

as reported elsewhere?

[davidwparker]

9. His name was fine here in southeast VA.

[FSogol]

15. No it was fine in Fairfax County. Falls Church has that problem however.

The radio (NPR I think) was talking to a poll worker from there and said a number of senior citizens were frustrated because their candidate did not appear on the screen.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I don't know if I like the sounds of that.

With more Republicans in the state than Democrats, I don't know that high turnout is a good thing.

[BonnieJW]

4. High voter turnout is usually favorable to dems

[bigdarryl]

11. Don't bet on it in the 04 presidential election there was heavy..

Turnout and look at the results. also the article said there was heavy turnout in a republican area you can bet there all not voting for Webb.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. That's a myth, or a holdover from the 60's

It's a silly contention, in any case. If the district is 60% Republican, then high turn-out is not favorable to Dems, as should be obvious enough.

[Brazenly Liberal]

5. No, it's good

High turnout favors the challenger and very high turnout can mean a blowout. High turnout usually means a much greater percentage of independents and undecideds hopped off the fence - and when they do, they tend to break toward the challenger.

[underpants]

8. There aren't necessarily more Republicans here

The fact is that most elections here aren't close so they are downplayed in the media, all ready decided.

Looking at a World Almanac (without a calculator) it is hard to figure out how the Republicans win here--Norfolk cancels out Va.Beach, etc.

Don't believe that W won by 8% here two years ago. No way that makes any sense from the polls to the exit polls this was extremely close...there do seem to be an awful lot of mystery voters out in the valley. I'm just saying.

[underpants]

16. Good article here

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/1/ARTICLE/7956/2006-11-06.html

[BootinUp]

3. 65% Lord thats high

The mountain folk are gettin riled up again. :scared:

[Hav]

6. .

I hope that the turnout in democratic leaning parts of the country are really high as well. Otherwise we have 6 years with racist Allen again.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. And gawd almighty I never want to be saying...

"President Allen." He and Santorum need to be stopped TODAY!

[RonSan]

12. Turnout

Turnout seemed to be high in my Republican leaning district in Waynesboro. However, it appeared to be a lot more Webb supporters
voting in my district....I noticed more Webb supporters this year in my district than Kerry supporters in 2004........!!

I think Webb may have succeeded in cutting into Allen's support in the Shenandoah Valley. If that's true, Webb should win.. My guess is Webb will win by 4-5%........Let's keep the faith!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

13. Welcome!

:toast:

[RufusEarl]

14. Getting rid of Allen is on my hope list,

i couldn't live with the thought of him someday being president. Good luck with Webb, i hope he can pull it off for all of america. And welcome to DU Turnout, it's going to be a long night.

[FSogol]

17. That's my guess also. Webb by 5%. Welcome to DU, btw. n/t

[LostinVA]

21. Webb by a solid 3% -- PLEASE!!!

[cnlst8]

18. High voter turnout = small / no effect of voter suppression tactics

[Sensitivity]

20. GO DEMS! High turnout is almost always good for DEMS. Repubs

tend to have more regular go-to-poll practices. High turnout
means dems are getting with the program even if they have to miss work.

[kwolf68]

22. I refuse to get my hopes up

It appears this gay marriage amendment really got the religious quacks out...and what two men or women do within the confines of their own lives is so much more important than the mess the globe currently lives within.

Im setting myself up for a narrow Webb loss.